The ability to improvise represents one of the highest levels of musical achievement. An improviser must master a musical language to such a degree as to be able spontaneously to invent stylistically ...
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The ability to improvise represents one of the highest levels of musical achievement. An improviser must master a musical language to such a degree as to be able spontaneously to invent stylistically idiomatic compositions in the moment. This feat is one of the pinnacles of human creativity, and yet its cognitive basis is poorly understood. What musical knowledge is required for improvisation? How does a musician learn to improvise? What are the neural correlates of improvised performance? This book explores these questions through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on the study of pedagogical treatises on improvisation, interviews with improvisers, musical analysis of improvised performances, and cognitive neuroscience. Findings from the treatises, interviews, and analyses are discussed from the perspective of cognitive psychological theories of learning, memory, and expertise, as well as data from functional brain imaging studies of improvisation. Pedagogy, learning, and performance in improvisation are explored in a cross-cultural context, demonstrating universal features across a wide variety of musical traditions. Though disparate, these sources provide a convergent picture of the improvising mind, suggesting that musical improvisation draws on some of the very same cognitive processes and neural resources as the more mundane but equally infinitely creative faculties of language and movement. Improvisation therefore provides a new focus for comparisons of music and language cognition: while past research comparing music and language cognition has focused almost exclusively on perception of the two sound systems, the cognitive processes underlying the acquisition and production of music and language have not been systematically explored. Here, learning to improvise is compared with language acquisition, and improvised performance is compared with spontaneous speech from both theoretical and neurobiological perspectives.Less

The Improvising Mind : Cognition and Creativity in the Musical Moment

Aaron Berkowitz

Published in print: 2010-06-09

The ability to improvise represents one of the highest levels of musical achievement. An improviser must master a musical language to such a degree as to be able spontaneously to invent stylistically idiomatic compositions in the moment. This feat is one of the pinnacles of human creativity, and yet its cognitive basis is poorly understood. What musical knowledge is required for improvisation? How does a musician learn to improvise? What are the neural correlates of improvised performance? This book explores these questions through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on the study of pedagogical treatises on improvisation, interviews with improvisers, musical analysis of improvised performances, and cognitive neuroscience. Findings from the treatises, interviews, and analyses are discussed from the perspective of cognitive psychological theories of learning, memory, and expertise, as well as data from functional brain imaging studies of improvisation. Pedagogy, learning, and performance in improvisation are explored in a cross-cultural context, demonstrating universal features across a wide variety of musical traditions. Though disparate, these sources provide a convergent picture of the improvising mind, suggesting that musical improvisation draws on some of the very same cognitive processes and neural resources as the more mundane but equally infinitely creative faculties of language and movement. Improvisation therefore provides a new focus for comparisons of music and language cognition: while past research comparing music and language cognition has focused almost exclusively on perception of the two sound systems, the cognitive processes underlying the acquisition and production of music and language have not been systematically explored. Here, learning to improvise is compared with language acquisition, and improvised performance is compared with spontaneous speech from both theoretical and neurobiological perspectives.

This introductory chapter defines terminology and concepts that will be drawn upon throughout the succeeding chapters. First, two definitions of improvisation are explored — one from the 19th century ...
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This introductory chapter defines terminology and concepts that will be drawn upon throughout the succeeding chapters. First, two definitions of improvisation are explored — one from the 19th century and one from the present day — highlighting their common core concept: spontaneous creativity within constraints. Following a discussion of the relevance of these aspects of improvisation to the present study of cognition in improvisation, some important concepts from the cognitive psychology of learning and memory are presented that serve as useful tools in understanding the material of the chapters that follow. Finally, the notion of comparisons between music and language cognition is introduced.Less

Introduction

Aaron L. Berkowitz

Published in print: 2010-06-09

This introductory chapter defines terminology and concepts that will be drawn upon throughout the succeeding chapters. First, two definitions of improvisation are explored — one from the 19th century and one from the present day — highlighting their common core concept: spontaneous creativity within constraints. Following a discussion of the relevance of these aspects of improvisation to the present study of cognition in improvisation, some important concepts from the cognitive psychology of learning and memory are presented that serve as useful tools in understanding the material of the chapters that follow. Finally, the notion of comparisons between music and language cognition is introduced.

This chapter compares music and language cognition with respect to production, examining improvisation and spontaneous speech from both theoretical and neurobiological perspectives. Cognition in ...
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This chapter compares music and language cognition with respect to production, examining improvisation and spontaneous speech from both theoretical and neurobiological perspectives. Cognition in improvisation is compared to that during spontaneous speech, using the theoretical framework put forth by Willem J. M. Levelt in his 1989 book Speaking. The neural correlates of improvisation are compared to those underlying spontaneous speech as elucidated by recent brain imaging studies.Less

Music and language cognition compared II: Production

Aaron L. Berkowitz

Published in print: 2010-06-09

This chapter compares music and language cognition with respect to production, examining improvisation and spontaneous speech from both theoretical and neurobiological perspectives. Cognition in improvisation is compared to that during spontaneous speech, using the theoretical framework put forth by Willem J. M. Levelt in his 1989 book Speaking. The neural correlates of improvisation are compared to those underlying spontaneous speech as elucidated by recent brain imaging studies.

This chapter considers the place of zygonic theory in the broader field of music theory and analysis, and notes that it is ‘psychomusicological’ in nature. The zygonic conjecture is introduced by ...
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This chapter considers the place of zygonic theory in the broader field of music theory and analysis, and notes that it is ‘psychomusicological’ in nature. The zygonic conjecture is introduced by considering how language functions as a medium of human communication, and then noting the differences and similarities between this and music. The perceived capacity of musical sounds for self-imitation lies at the heart of the theory, and this is placed within a broader framework, which takes into account the wider environment in which music-structural cognition resides. This enables a definition of ‘music’ to be generated, which underpins the thinking in the chapters that follow, in which the theory is applied in educational, therapeutic, and psychological contexts.Less

Music theory and the zygonic approach

Adam Ockelford

Published in print: 2012-11-22

This chapter considers the place of zygonic theory in the broader field of music theory and analysis, and notes that it is ‘psychomusicological’ in nature. The zygonic conjecture is introduced by considering how language functions as a medium of human communication, and then noting the differences and similarities between this and music. The perceived capacity of musical sounds for self-imitation lies at the heart of the theory, and this is placed within a broader framework, which takes into account the wider environment in which music-structural cognition resides. This enables a definition of ‘music’ to be generated, which underpins the thinking in the chapters that follow, in which the theory is applied in educational, therapeutic, and psychological contexts.

This chapter considers the historical debate of the role nature versus nurture in the knowledge people acquire through experiences. It looks into the debate's significance in the study of music ...
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This chapter considers the historical debate of the role nature versus nurture in the knowledge people acquire through experiences. It looks into the debate's significance in the study of music learning, and the developments which led to scientists exploring simultaneously how human biology constrains one's experience of the world. It provides a sampling of more recent research in the fields of aural perception, music cognition perception, and the neurobiology of music cognition, and discusses how their findings shape the way educators approach music teaching and learning. It investigates how a person's implicit understandings of music are shaped by enculturation, and how this can aid students through potential challenges of cross-cultural musical understanding. It also highlights research on amnesia, an inability to hear or retain certain kinds of musical information, and emphasizes at recent discoveries on studies on a rare form congenital amnesia that prevents people from developing normal musical competence.Less

Biological and Environmental Factors in Music Cognitionand Learning

Steven M. Demorest

Published in print: 2011-12-08

This chapter considers the historical debate of the role nature versus nurture in the knowledge people acquire through experiences. It looks into the debate's significance in the study of music learning, and the developments which led to scientists exploring simultaneously how human biology constrains one's experience of the world. It provides a sampling of more recent research in the fields of aural perception, music cognition perception, and the neurobiology of music cognition, and discusses how their findings shape the way educators approach music teaching and learning. It investigates how a person's implicit understandings of music are shaped by enculturation, and how this can aid students through potential challenges of cross-cultural musical understanding. It also highlights research on amnesia, an inability to hear or retain certain kinds of musical information, and emphasizes at recent discoveries on studies on a rare form congenital amnesia that prevents people from developing normal musical competence.

This chapter explores the neurobiological basis of improvisation as studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It presents research with cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Ansari ...
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This chapter explores the neurobiological basis of improvisation as studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It presents research with cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Ansari alongside recent research in this area by Charles Limb and Allen Braun. It discusses neurophysiological findings in the context of the insights gleaned from the interviews with improvisers presented in Chapter 6, as well as with respect to other work on the neural basis of improvisation.Less

The neurobiology of improvisation

Aaron L. Berkowitz

Published in print: 2010-06-09

This chapter explores the neurobiological basis of improvisation as studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It presents research with cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Ansari alongside recent research in this area by Charles Limb and Allen Braun. It discusses neurophysiological findings in the context of the insights gleaned from the interviews with improvisers presented in Chapter 6, as well as with respect to other work on the neural basis of improvisation.

This chapter presents intriguing data from children aged five to seven who were asked to notate various musical fragments without explicit instruction. What is particularly impressive about these ...
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This chapter presents intriguing data from children aged five to seven who were asked to notate various musical fragments without explicit instruction. What is particularly impressive about these data is the coherence of the schemes devised by children. Even at age five, many children devise abstract symbols to represent particularly the rhythmic structure of the music. By age seven, pitch becomes an increasing focus for notational attention. Interestingly, at age five, performance skill and notational skill seem largely uncorrelated; but by age seven, the two seem to have become ‘yoked’ together into a unified domain of musical intelligence.Less

Young children’s musical representations: windows on music cognition

Lyle DavidsonLawrence Scripp

Published in print: 2001-01-11

This chapter presents intriguing data from children aged five to seven who were asked to notate various musical fragments without explicit instruction. What is particularly impressive about these data is the coherence of the schemes devised by children. Even at age five, many children devise abstract symbols to represent particularly the rhythmic structure of the music. By age seven, pitch becomes an increasing focus for notational attention. Interestingly, at age five, performance skill and notational skill seem largely uncorrelated; but by age seven, the two seem to have become ‘yoked’ together into a unified domain of musical intelligence.

This book addresses the central problem of music cognition: how listeners' responses move beyond mere registration of auditory events to include the organization, interpretation, and remembrance of ...
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This book addresses the central problem of music cognition: how listeners' responses move beyond mere registration of auditory events to include the organization, interpretation, and remembrance of these events in terms of their function in a musical context of pitch and rhythm. The work offers an analysis of the relationship between the psychological organization of music and its internal structure. It combines over a decade of original research on music cognition with an overview of the available literature. The author also provides a background in experimental methodology and music theory.Less

Cognitive Foundations of Musical Pitch

Carol L. Krumhansl

Published in print: 2001-11-29

This book addresses the central problem of music cognition: how listeners' responses move beyond mere registration of auditory events to include the organization, interpretation, and remembrance of these events in terms of their function in a musical context of pitch and rhythm. The work offers an analysis of the relationship between the psychological organization of music and its internal structure. It combines over a decade of original research on music cognition with an overview of the available literature. The author also provides a background in experimental methodology and music theory.

This chapter steps back from the empirical results to consider what they reveal about the psychological basis of musical pitch structures. Certain properties of pitch systems are identified that may ...
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This chapter steps back from the empirical results to consider what they reveal about the psychological basis of musical pitch structures. Certain properties of pitch systems are identified that may be important for accurate encoding and memory. A number of traditional and novel pitch systems are analyzed for the presence or absence of these properties. The chapter concludes with a summary of the empirical findings, and a discussion of what they indicate about the nature of the perceptual and cognitive abilities underlying our musical experience.Less

Music cognition: theoretical and empirical generalizations

Carol L. Krumhansl

Published in print: 2001-11-29

This chapter steps back from the empirical results to consider what they reveal about the psychological basis of musical pitch structures. Certain properties of pitch systems are identified that may be important for accurate encoding and memory. A number of traditional and novel pitch systems are analyzed for the presence or absence of these properties. The chapter concludes with a summary of the empirical findings, and a discussion of what they indicate about the nature of the perceptual and cognitive abilities underlying our musical experience.

In the first comprehensive study of the relationship between music and language from the standpoint of cognitive neuroscience, the author challenges the widespread belief that music and language are ...
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In the first comprehensive study of the relationship between music and language from the standpoint of cognitive neuroscience, the author challenges the widespread belief that music and language are processed independently. Since Plato's time, the relationship between music and language has attracted interest and debate from a wide range of thinkers. Recently, scientific research on this topic has been growing rapidly, as scholars from diverse disciplines including linguistics, cognitive science, music cognition, and neuroscience are drawn to the music-language interface as one way to explore the extent to which different mental abilities are processed by separate brain mechanisms. Accordingly, the relevant data and theories have been spread across a range of disciplines. This book provides the first synthesis, arguing that music and language share deep and critical connections, and that comparative research provides a powerful way to study the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying these uniquely human abilities.Less

Music, Language, and the Brain

Aniruddh D. Patel

Published in print: 2007-12-06

In the first comprehensive study of the relationship between music and language from the standpoint of cognitive neuroscience, the author challenges the widespread belief that music and language are processed independently. Since Plato's time, the relationship between music and language has attracted interest and debate from a wide range of thinkers. Recently, scientific research on this topic has been growing rapidly, as scholars from diverse disciplines including linguistics, cognitive science, music cognition, and neuroscience are drawn to the music-language interface as one way to explore the extent to which different mental abilities are processed by separate brain mechanisms. Accordingly, the relevant data and theories have been spread across a range of disciplines. This book provides the first synthesis, arguing that music and language share deep and critical connections, and that comparative research provides a powerful way to study the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying these uniquely human abilities.

This chapter examines historical and current theories of the multiplicity of identity, and in addition to McAdams’ story-structure model and Hermans and Kempen’s dialogical model, it outlines a ...
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This chapter examines historical and current theories of the multiplicity of identity, and in addition to McAdams’ story-structure model and Hermans and Kempen’s dialogical model, it outlines a “structuralist” or “generative” theory. Based on life narratives elicited from young adult Americans and Moroccans, the “generative” model emphasizes the crucial role played by structurally ambiguous key symbols and metaphors in integrating multiple self-representations, and in facilitating shifts between them via figure/ground-like reversals in their meanings and in the affects that the features highlighted as “foreground” elicit. This model resembles Dennet’s (1991) “multiple drafts” theory of consciousness and Schenker’s (1954) and Lehrdahl and Jackendoff’s (1983) “layered” theories of music cognition, and it is hypothesized that self-representation employs cognitive processes and structures that strongly resemble those that organize tonal music. Specifically, it hypothesizes that “octave-like relations” among key symbols serve as the elementary units of self-representation, as they define the scale-like structures within which self-relevant meaning becomes possible.Less

Multiple Identities and Their Organization

Gary S. Gregg

Published in print: 2012-04-17

This chapter examines historical and current theories of the multiplicity of identity, and in addition to McAdams’ story-structure model and Hermans and Kempen’s dialogical model, it outlines a “structuralist” or “generative” theory. Based on life narratives elicited from young adult Americans and Moroccans, the “generative” model emphasizes the crucial role played by structurally ambiguous key symbols and metaphors in integrating multiple self-representations, and in facilitating shifts between them via figure/ground-like reversals in their meanings and in the affects that the features highlighted as “foreground” elicit. This model resembles Dennet’s (1991) “multiple drafts” theory of consciousness and Schenker’s (1954) and Lehrdahl and Jackendoff’s (1983) “layered” theories of music cognition, and it is hypothesized that self-representation employs cognitive processes and structures that strongly resemble those that organize tonal music. Specifically, it hypothesizes that “octave-like relations” among key symbols serve as the elementary units of self-representation, as they define the scale-like structures within which self-relevant meaning becomes possible.

This chapter examines the development of music perception and cognition during early and middle childhood. Although infants have fairly sophisticated musical abilities, it takes many years to acquire ...
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This chapter examines the development of music perception and cognition during early and middle childhood. Although infants have fairly sophisticated musical abilities, it takes many years to acquire adult-like musical knowledge. Much of this development occurs early in life, when children accumulate informal listening experience with the music of their culture. With increasing musical experience and general cognitive development, children’s knowledge of culture-general aspects of musical structure improves. Even larger developmental changes are seen in their acquisition of culture-specific knowledge of pitch and temporal structures. In some cases, formal music training accelerates the development of culture-specific knowledge and improves explicit understanding of musical concepts. In other cases—such as perceiving emotion expressed musically—music training has little effect. Future research could include age groups (i.e., toddlers) and musical cultures (e.g., Chinese, Indian) that have been largely neglected to date.Less

Music cognition in childhood

Kathleen A. CorrigallE. Glenn Schellenberg

Published in print: 2015-09-01

This chapter examines the development of music perception and cognition during early and middle childhood. Although infants have fairly sophisticated musical abilities, it takes many years to acquire adult-like musical knowledge. Much of this development occurs early in life, when children accumulate informal listening experience with the music of their culture. With increasing musical experience and general cognitive development, children’s knowledge of culture-general aspects of musical structure improves. Even larger developmental changes are seen in their acquisition of culture-specific knowledge of pitch and temporal structures. In some cases, formal music training accelerates the development of culture-specific knowledge and improves explicit understanding of musical concepts. In other cases—such as perceiving emotion expressed musically—music training has little effect. Future research could include age groups (i.e., toddlers) and musical cultures (e.g., Chinese, Indian) that have been largely neglected to date.

This chapter explores the developments in musical learning theories and their implications. It highlights Music as Cognition by psychologist Mary Louise Serafine, and considers her identification of ...
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This chapter explores the developments in musical learning theories and their implications. It highlights Music as Cognition by psychologist Mary Louise Serafine, and considers her identification of four nontemporal processes: closure, transformation, abstraction, and hierarchic levels. It presents an argument for the validity of the Swanwick-Tillman developmental spiral, and describes how materials, expression, form, and value are attained through mastery, imitation, imaginative play, and metacognition. It recognizes the importance of social sharing, and how the argument uses the process of composing to explicate the various facets of the spiral, and how this applies to performance, to listening, and in cross-cultural situations. It also examines the critical approach advocated by Yaroslav and Susan Senyshyn to developmental learning theories in music.Less

Musical Development : Revisiting a Generic Theory

Keith Swanwick

Published in print: 2011-12-08

This chapter explores the developments in musical learning theories and their implications. It highlights Music as Cognition by psychologist Mary Louise Serafine, and considers her identification of four nontemporal processes: closure, transformation, abstraction, and hierarchic levels. It presents an argument for the validity of the Swanwick-Tillman developmental spiral, and describes how materials, expression, form, and value are attained through mastery, imitation, imaginative play, and metacognition. It recognizes the importance of social sharing, and how the argument uses the process of composing to explicate the various facets of the spiral, and how this applies to performance, to listening, and in cross-cultural situations. It also examines the critical approach advocated by Yaroslav and Susan Senyshyn to developmental learning theories in music.

Musical instruments ground players’ actions and the sounds they create. Yet this book further claims that instruments mediate perception and imagination. Practicing an instrument builds bodily ...
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Musical instruments ground players’ actions and the sounds they create. Yet this book further claims that instruments mediate perception and imagination. Practicing an instrument builds bodily skills, while also fostering auditory-motor connections in players’ brains. These intersensory links reflect the ways that a particular instrument converts action into sound, the ways that it coordinates tonal and physical space. Reactivated in various ways, these connections can influence instrumentalists’ listening, improvisation, and composition. To investigate these effects, the book engages both classical and popular styles, from Bach to electronic music, from Beethoven to the blues. It uses Lewinian transformational theory to model instrumental interfaces and to analyze patterns of body-instrument interaction. Though based in music theory and analysis, the book also draws on psychology, including cognitive neuroscience, and the phenomenological philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger. Ultimately, it argues that music cognition is not simply embodied; it is also conditioned by musical technology.Less

Music at Hand : Instruments, Bodies, and Cognition

Jonathan De Souza

Published in print: 2017-04-06

Musical instruments ground players’ actions and the sounds they create. Yet this book further claims that instruments mediate perception and imagination. Practicing an instrument builds bodily skills, while also fostering auditory-motor connections in players’ brains. These intersensory links reflect the ways that a particular instrument converts action into sound, the ways that it coordinates tonal and physical space. Reactivated in various ways, these connections can influence instrumentalists’ listening, improvisation, and composition. To investigate these effects, the book engages both classical and popular styles, from Bach to electronic music, from Beethoven to the blues. It uses Lewinian transformational theory to model instrumental interfaces and to analyze patterns of body-instrument interaction. Though based in music theory and analysis, the book also draws on psychology, including cognitive neuroscience, and the phenomenological philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger. Ultimately, it argues that music cognition is not simply embodied; it is also conditioned by musical technology.

Voice leading is the musical art of combining sounds over time. This book offers an accessible account of the cognitive and perceptual foundations of voice leading. Drawing on decades of scientific ...
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Voice leading is the musical art of combining sounds over time. This book offers an accessible account of the cognitive and perceptual foundations of voice leading. Drawing on decades of scientific research, explanations are provided for many practices and phenomena, including the perceptual dominance of the highest voice, chordal-tone doubling, direct octaves, embellishing tones, and the musical feeling of sounds “leading” somewhere. The traditional rules of voice leading are shown to align almost perfectly with modern scientific accounts of auditory perception. Expanding beyond chorale-style writing, the book shows how established perceptual principles can be used to compose, analyze, and critically understand any kind of acoustical texture from tune-and-accompaniment songs and symphonic orchestration to jazz combo arranging and abstract electroacoustic music. Finally, the book also reviews pertinent research establishing the role of learning and enculturation in auditory and musical perception.Less

Voice Leading : The Science Behind a Musical Art

David. Huron

Published in print: 2016-09-02

Voice leading is the musical art of combining sounds over time. This book offers an accessible account of the cognitive and perceptual foundations of voice leading. Drawing on decades of scientific research, explanations are provided for many practices and phenomena, including the perceptual dominance of the highest voice, chordal-tone doubling, direct octaves, embellishing tones, and the musical feeling of sounds “leading” somewhere. The traditional rules of voice leading are shown to align almost perfectly with modern scientific accounts of auditory perception. Expanding beyond chorale-style writing, the book shows how established perceptual principles can be used to compose, analyze, and critically understand any kind of acoustical texture from tune-and-accompaniment songs and symphonic orchestration to jazz combo arranging and abstract electroacoustic music. Finally, the book also reviews pertinent research establishing the role of learning and enculturation in auditory and musical perception.

Music learning theory (MLT), which was developed by Edwin Gordon, provides a theoretical framework for teaching music. At its core is the goal of developing audiation skills so that students can ...
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Music learning theory (MLT), which was developed by Edwin Gordon, provides a theoretical framework for teaching music. At its core is the goal of developing audiation skills so that students can become musically independent. MLT is built upon research focusing on the similarities between the music and language learning processes; acquiring a sense of syntactical structure is central to both. This focus on syntax differentiates MLT from most other music learning approaches. The two primary components of MLT instruction are learning sequence activities (i.e., tonal and rhythm pattern instruction) and classroom activities. These combine to form a whole-part-whole approach to teaching music, with classroom activities serving as the wholes, and pattern instruction serving as the part. Individualizing instruction to meet the musical needs of each child is fundamental to MLT. This chapter explores the theoretical underpinnings of MLT, how it unfolds in practice, and its strengths and weaknesses.Less

Music Learning Theory : A Theoretical Framework in Action

Cynthia Crump Taggart

Published in print: 2016-03-01

Music learning theory (MLT), which was developed by Edwin Gordon, provides a theoretical framework for teaching music. At its core is the goal of developing audiation skills so that students can become musically independent. MLT is built upon research focusing on the similarities between the music and language learning processes; acquiring a sense of syntactical structure is central to both. This focus on syntax differentiates MLT from most other music learning approaches. The two primary components of MLT instruction are learning sequence activities (i.e., tonal and rhythm pattern instruction) and classroom activities. These combine to form a whole-part-whole approach to teaching music, with classroom activities serving as the wholes, and pattern instruction serving as the part. Individualizing instruction to meet the musical needs of each child is fundamental to MLT. This chapter explores the theoretical underpinnings of MLT, how it unfolds in practice, and its strengths and weaknesses.

A brief review is provided of sixteen core traditional rules of voice leading as formulated in the late Baroque period. These rules are typically taught as part of the core theory curriculum in ...
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A brief review is provided of sixteen core traditional rules of voice leading as formulated in the late Baroque period. These rules are typically taught as part of the core theory curriculum in conservatories and schools of music.Less

The Canon

David Huron

Published in print: 2016-09-02

A brief review is provided of sixteen core traditional rules of voice leading as formulated in the late Baroque period. These rules are typically taught as part of the core theory curriculum in conservatories and schools of music.

Repetition is stunningly pervasive in music from all over the world. People often place their music players “on repeat”—relistening to the same recordings again and again. The prevalence of this ...
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Repetition is stunningly pervasive in music from all over the world. People often place their music players “on repeat”—relistening to the same recordings again and again. The prevalence of this practice suggests the existence of some sort of underlying psychological principle; however, people have been slow to acknowledge and study music’s repetitiveness, finding it an embarrassing or suspicious practice. This book argues that repetitiveness lies at the core of musical experience, and adopts the perspective of cognitive science to examine the puzzle of this human appetite for musical repetition. Work on subjects as diverse as the structure of bird song, the psychology of ritual, the nature of infant-directed speech, the neural basis of hearing, and pathologies of repetitiveness such as obsessive-compulsive disorder are marshaled to shed light on the everyday behavior of repetitive music listening. This perspective draws new distinctions between music and language as communicative forms, and offers new ideas about the cognitive basis of musical pleasure.Less

On Repeat : How Music Plays the Mind

Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis

Published in print: 2013-12-09

Repetition is stunningly pervasive in music from all over the world. People often place their music players “on repeat”—relistening to the same recordings again and again. The prevalence of this practice suggests the existence of some sort of underlying psychological principle; however, people have been slow to acknowledge and study music’s repetitiveness, finding it an embarrassing or suspicious practice. This book argues that repetitiveness lies at the core of musical experience, and adopts the perspective of cognitive science to examine the puzzle of this human appetite for musical repetition. Work on subjects as diverse as the structure of bird song, the psychology of ritual, the nature of infant-directed speech, the neural basis of hearing, and pathologies of repetitiveness such as obsessive-compulsive disorder are marshaled to shed light on the everyday behavior of repetitive music listening. This perspective draws new distinctions between music and language as communicative forms, and offers new ideas about the cognitive basis of musical pleasure.

The Direct or Hidden Intervals rule has a special status in the voice-leading canon. It offers two lessons. First, the direct intervals rule provides a logical link between three perceptual ...
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The Direct or Hidden Intervals rule has a special status in the voice-leading canon. It offers two lessons. First, the direct intervals rule provides a logical link between three perceptual principles (harmonic fusion, semblant motion, and pitch proximity). The rule provides the glue that establishes a logical interconnection between the various rules of in the voice-leading canon. Said another way, the direct intervals rule points to the unity of the traditional part-writing rules. Second, perceptual experiments testing this traditional rule will lead us to question whether listeners hear nominally four-part harmony as truly evoking four independent lines. This observation leads us to consider possible hierarchical organization of auditory streams—which is the topic of the next chapter.Less

Direct Intervals Revisited

David Huron

Published in print: 2016-09-02

The Direct or Hidden Intervals rule has a special status in the voice-leading canon. It offers two lessons. First, the direct intervals rule provides a logical link between three perceptual principles (harmonic fusion, semblant motion, and pitch proximity). The rule provides the glue that establishes a logical interconnection between the various rules of in the voice-leading canon. Said another way, the direct intervals rule points to the unity of the traditional part-writing rules. Second, perceptual experiments testing this traditional rule will lead us to question whether listeners hear nominally four-part harmony as truly evoking four independent lines. This observation leads us to consider possible hierarchical organization of auditory streams—which is the topic of the next chapter.